"Many times, when you try to select an osnap in a crowded area, the wrong osnap pops up and you don't make the selection that you intended. There is a very easy way to avoid this: Assign keyboard shortcuts to different osnaps and press F3, or click on the osnap icon to turn the osnaps off when you make your selection.

"To assign the shortcuts, do the following: Open the CUI and select Keyboard shortcuts, and then Temporary override keys. Select Object snap override: endpoint, then click in the cell on the right side of the key(s) line in the shortcut area and click on the ellipses. When the assignment dialog box comes up, hold down the Shift key and press E. This will assign Shift+E as an endpoint whenever an osnap is needed in a drawing.

"Do the same thing for the rest of the osnaps you use regularly. It is handier to assign all the osnaps on the left side of the keyboard. Here are the keys I have assigned:

"With a little practice, this will become a very efficient and natural way to select osnaps."

Notes from Cadalyst tip reviewer Brian Benton: This is a great tip highlighting a customization tool that we (myself included) often forget about. Many of us use command aliases all the time, and we also know how to change those to fit our needs. It's a classic efficiency tip: setting custom keyboard shortcuts, which means using the Shift, Alt, and Ctrl keys in conjunction with the regular keys. You can also use alternate key combos, such as Shift+Ctrl. Because these extra keys are located on both sides of the keyboard, they are easy for right- and left-handed CAD users to access.

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User comments

Comment by Shehata,Tawfik

Posted on 2013-06-17 00:31:44

You can use this tip without the need to turn the Osnap off first, you can
also utilize the keyboard function keys F1, F2, ..etc for this purpose if
you don’t wish to hold down multiple keys together.

Comment by Dieters,Justin

Posted on 2013-06-17 14:54:21

We've been using X-Keys Desktop keypads for years for this. You can use
about half of the keys for snaps, and the other half for common operations
like copy/paste @ 0,0.

Comment by White,Ian

Posted on 2013-06-17 21:25:01

Great tip.
You can do so much more by using the middle (also wheel) button and a
"properly" designed POP0 menu. I have had this since mnemonics were
introduced in menus.
Basically, I press the middle button and the POP0 menu pops up. Then it is
only a case of pressing the letter you have assigned in your POP0 menu for
the particular function.
In my menu, it is:
Tracking (k)
Snapangle (g) which cascades to Snapangle (g) and Snap Style (y)
Calculator (u) which cascaded to another menu that lets you call up the
calculator or other pre-defined options like mid, distance, etc.
Point Filters (f) which cascades to all the .x, .y, .x, .xy, .xz, .yz
Then the standard osnaps
and then a zoom item that cascades to the various zoom options.
So, to change the snapangle, it s middle button and gg, then enter the
angle or pick points off geometry.
To invoke the .X filter, it is middle button and fx.
For the zoom it is middle button then zz for zoom extents then zoom .9x
or middle button then zp for zoom previous
or middle button and zn for pan mode.
You get the idea.
You can improve your drafting speed significantly with such customising.
I was once told by a client (when I had this with R12) that I was
"cheating" because I was using both hands :-)
As with anything, it takes time for it to become automatic.
Now, get to it and see what you can do with customising :-)

Comment by Peterson,Rob

Posted on 2013-06-18 07:00:59

Shift+Right mouse click will also bring up the osnaps menu & you can pick
whatever osnap that you want without having to remember which key goes with
which osnap

Comment by Damman,John

Posted on 2014-02-04 16:54:50

Ctrl-right click after item and/or grip selection brings up the entire snap
list which is especially useful if your preset snaps are few (like mine).
I use this alot for finding the midpoint between two other points.

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